Inflammatory gingival and periodontal disease is possibly the most common affliction of Man and is the major cause of tooth loss. It is accompanied by qualitative and quantitative changes in collagen which is the principal structural component of the periodontium. An obvious consequence of periodontal disease is the loss of large amount of tissue collagen which, in earlier stages of the disease, if related to increased degradation lent in chronic syndromes, may arise from decreased synthesis. Studies using cultures of gingival fibroblasts derived from clinically healthy and diseased subjects show a change in the rate of collagen synthesis as well as the types of collagen synthesized. Since the complement of tRNA in a tissue may be adapted for the synthesis of specific protein and the levels of particular tRNA species seem to regulate the amount of collagen, we plan to study the possible involvement of codon-specific isoaccepting tRNA species related to collagen synthesis. The primary objective of this proposal is to determine if qualitative or quantitative differences in collagen-characteristic tRNA species exist between cultures of gingival fibroblasts derived from healthy and diseased sources. The results of these studies will be compared with those obtained from chondrocytes cultured under conditions in which they produce elevated levels of collagen. The comparative study of this nature, therefore, may enable us to obtain basic information on cellular level which we hope will be useful in explaining the alteration of collagen content in periodontal disease.